For intravenous (IV) infusions and/or withdrawing of venous blood, a device commonly known as a "butterfly" or winged intravenous infusion assembly is often used. This device may also be known as a hemodialysis needle.
Given the increasing risks of blood borne disease that a care giver, or for that matter a bystander, is exposed to when needle devices are used, some states have now mandate the use of protection devices that would preclude a contaminated needle from being exposed to the environment. Some of the currently available needle protection devices for IV infusion needles include the SAFETY-LOK blood collection sets manufactured by the Becton Dickinson Company and the ANGLWING safety needle protection system manufactured by the Sherwood Medical Company. These systems are sold as sets in that the needle protection device is already built onto the winged infusion assembly.
Yet there are standalone winged infusion assemblies. For those types of assemblies, there is therefore a need to provide or fit them with a safety device that would preclude the needle, after it has been contaminated with a patient's blood, from being exposed to the environment. Moreover, for ease of manufacture, it may be advantageous to mold the safety device and the IV infusion assembly as a single unit